Multiple Sclerosis: How to Minimize Decision-Making Stress

When you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic illness like multiple sclerosis (MS), getting comfortable with the decision-making process and with the decisions you end up making is important to living comfortably. Improvements in treatment options have given patients more opportunity to continue living full, productive lives.

Here are just some of the areas in which the options for people with MS have increased dramatically in recent years:

Choosing among treatment options

Managing symptoms

Making family planning decisions

Making career decisions

Don’t be surprised when the people who care about you most — your partner, parents, extended family members, friends, and colleagues — have lots of opinions about what you should and shouldn’t do and about what’s best for you. In fact, get used to the idea that you may get a lot more advice than you actually want.

As if hearing all this advice weren’t challenging enough, the kicker is that much of that advice is likely to be conflicting or even contradictory. Your challenge, together with your healthcare team and your partner, is to sift through the various opinions to find what works for you. Above all, realize that you aren’t going to please everyone.